1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for polishing concrete surfaces. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved method for polishing and repairing concrete walls, floors, and the like.
2. State of the Art
Concrete is one of the most widely used construction materials. Because of its strength, durability, ease of manufacture, ease of installation, and relatively low cost, it is frequently the material of choice for floors, walls, and the like. However, there are many instances where it is desirable to have a floor or wall surface with a pleasing high gloss finish or shine. In such cases, concrete may be overlooked in favor of other more high cost materials such as marble, stone, terrazo, etc.
There are a number of known methods of cleaning and polishing marble and stone surfaces. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,493 to Donatelli et al. discloses a fairly typical method for stone polishing including the steps of applying a solution to a stone floor, mechanically polishing with a rotary disk, and removing the slurry. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,751 to Wiand discloses an abrasive rotary polishing disk designed to resist damage from ridges, bumps, and other floor irregularities. These prior art devices and methods deal exclusively with stone floors of various kinds, and do not address the polishing of concrete. Moreover, while these known devices and methods anticipate the use of a liquid lubricant of some kind during polishing to create a slurry.
The use of silicates as abrasives is also well known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,644 to Smith et al. discloses a floor cleaning and waxing composition which may include silicate abrasives, U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,002 to Davis discloses a floor care maintenance system including a floor finish stripper containing sodium metasilicate. U.S. Pat. No. 1,965,299 to Patterson discloses an abrading and polishing composition for enamels, lacquers, etc., which may include a silicate abrasive agent. U.S. Pat. No. 2,196,992 to Keller discloses a metal polish which contains sodium silicate. U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,891 to Muhler discloses a household cleaning and polishing composition containing zirconium silicate. U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,305 to Muhler discloses a dental amalgam polishing composition containing stannous silicate. U.S. Pat. No. 3,685,218 to Gamble discloses a glass polishing composition containing zirconium silicate. Notably, none of these prior art methods mention or suggest the use of silicates as a polishing compound for concrete.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method of mechanically polishing a concrete surface to obtain an aesthetically pleasing high gloss using a silicate polishing solution.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method of internally densifying and hardening a concrete surface using silicate based compounds.
It is another object of this invention to provide a method of honing, smoothing, and polishing a rough concrete surface using silicate based compounds.
The above and other objects are realized in a specific illustrative embodiment of a method of hardening and polishing concrete surfaces. This method includes the steps of first densifying and hardening the concrete surface by a silicate based hardening/densifying compound, allowing the hardening/densifying compound to remain in contact with surface for a period of time sufficient to allow it to soak into the surface of the concrete, cleaning the surface and allowing it to dry, secondly polishing the surface with a diluted silicate polishing compound. The surface polishing step includes applying to a concrete surface a diluted silicate polishing compound, mechanically polishing the concrete surface with a rotary, drum or disc polishing machine, cleaning the concrete surface, and then repeating the above steps with polishing pads or discs, of increasingly finer grit until the surface obtains an aesthetically desirable level of shine.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a rough concrete surface may be honed and polished by the steps of cleaning the surface, honing the surface with a rough grit honing disk so as to produce a smooth even surface, using water as a lubricant, cleaning the surface and allowing it to dry, applying to the concrete surface a silicate hardening/densifying compound, allowing the silicate hardening/densifying compound to remain in contact with the surface for a period of time sufficient to allow the compound to soak into the surface of the concrete, allowing the surface to dry thoroughly, removing any puddles, mechanically polishing the concrete surface, cleaning the surface, and polishing the surface with a diluted silicate polishing compound as described above.
Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, based on the following description.